Archpriest convicted of plotting clergy poisoning released on parole

Archpriest Giorgi Mamaladze, who was convicted in 2017 of plotting the murder of a high-ranking clergy member of the Georgian Orthodox Church, was released on parole on Wednesday.

In his remarks after the release, Mamaladze told the local media his imprisonment had been a case of “injustice”.

Mamaladze was sentenced to nine years in 2017, after he was arrested at Tbilisi International Airport, with police discovering cyanide during personal search.

Law enforcement claimed the arrested Archpriest was planning to travel to Germany, where Ilia II, the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church, was undergoing a laparoscopic gallbladder surgery at a Berlin clinic.